World Champion D Gukesh showed off his 'alpha walk' during the India Today Concalve 2025 on Saturday, March 8. Gukesh spoke about his World title win and how he wanted to dedicate it to his parents, the impact of Viswanathan Anand on India's golden chess revolution and more.
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00:00Okay, from Mukesh, we're going to turn our attention to Gukesh, who joins us.
00:08Both quite similar, not just in their names, but in what they're achieving at the moment.
00:15Ladies and gentlemen, a big round of applause for the youngest ever world chess champion
00:19in the history of the sport, just at 18 years of age.
00:25Gukesh, come.
00:27He's only the second Indian after Vishwanathan Anand to be crowned world chess champion.
00:34As I said, the youngest ever in history, and what a year he had in 2024, where he won the
00:41candidate's title, and then the world chess championship, the chess Olympiad, winning
00:45medals at an individual level, as well as for the country.
00:50Everything that could be won, Gukesh has done it, and it makes us very proud.
00:54He's also a Khel Ratna, just awarded that award as well from the president, Gukesh,
01:01first up.
01:02I spoke to you after you had won that title.
01:05Has life changed for you after that win over Ding?
01:09First of all, good afternoon all, I'm very glad to be here to see all of you.
01:17Thank you so much for the invite.
01:19And yeah, after the world championship, for sure, some things have changed, because becoming
01:28the world champion was like my childhood dream, and to have achieved that was like a very
01:35satisfying feeling.
01:38But yeah, in my career, I mean, like the first week or two, I was super excited, I was like
01:44celebrating, but then next tournament started coming up, I started preparing again.
01:49But yeah, a few things have changed, like my schedule is a bit more hectic now.
01:56And yeah, like when I go out, I generally get recognized much more than before.
02:04But other than that, nothing too huge.
02:08When he says it was his childhood dream, he's not just, you know, saying the most cliche
02:12line in the world.
02:13There is a video of Gukesh, 12 year old Gukesh, who said that he's going to be world champion
02:19and sure enough, six years later, he was the world champion.
02:24You said how life has changed.
02:25You know, I don't want to embarrass you.
02:28But the bank balance has also changed.
02:29I was looking at the prize money won on last count, I think he had won about 13 crore Indian
02:35rupees just last year, one of the highest in the world of chess.
02:40And that's not counting the many prize money that was offered from various state governments.
02:44I don't want to embarrass you, but I want you to tell us, what does this mean to you,
02:51this prize money?
02:52Because you come from a very humble background.
02:54Your parents made a lot of sacrifices for you to be here.
02:57Yeah, for sure.
03:00I mean, my parents, I think, like, I'm really glad that I could do this for my parents more
03:09than the financial aspect.
03:11Because throughout my career, I think they were facing, I say they because they were
03:18not allowing me to realize what the struggles that they were going through.
03:23But they did go through a lot of financial struggles.
03:25And I remember, like, when I was around 2018, 2019, we were basically playing tournaments.
03:35Basically, my parents' friends, they were sponsoring me to play tournaments abroad.
03:40And it was quite difficult at that time.
03:42And we had a lot of help from very, very nice people and very selfless people who came forward
03:51to help.
03:53And now, yeah, the last year was financially as well very, very good for us.
04:05And I think it means a lot to me in a sense that my parents can not think about money
04:12anymore.
04:13We can lead a comfortable life, not struggle like before.
04:16I'm sure they're very proud parents.
04:19I asked him at the start how life has changed.
04:22And he, you must have seen various reactions, but I have something very special to show
04:25you which you probably wouldn't have seen.
04:28We cover a lot of chess at India today.
04:31We have a platform called Sports Today, where we do lives whenever your match is on.
04:36I want to show you a clip from our platform Sports Today.
04:39This is seconds after Gukesh had been crowned world champions.
04:44I want you to see what happened in Australia.
04:47I'm just struggling, struggling to just compose myself overcome with a lot of emotion right
04:53now.
04:54And why should he not be?
04:55After all, we've all witnessed a piece of history just moments back.
04:59D Gukesh, I'll actually let Siddharth take this news to you.
05:02Yes, some of you may have been informed by now, but it's our duty to tell you what exactly
05:06is it that happened and how big is it really when you talk about chess.
05:10Siddharth, by the way, I can tell you has been diligently following chess for so long.
05:15He was on a call with his uncle.
05:18Yeah, don't do this, Rishi.
05:22And he can't believe.
05:24I really couldn't believe it.
05:26Things have come out so beautifully.
05:28I mean, look at him.
05:30Rishi also deserves a massive applause for winning.
05:35Right.
05:36Did you have any idea?
05:37This is Siddharth.
05:38He covers chess for us.
05:40He broke down once you became world champion.
05:44I was just talking to him.
05:45He asked me to watch the video carefully.
05:47Now I understand why.
05:49Do you now realize the kind of joy that you brought about to this country?
05:54I'm very glad to see that.
05:56I was actually joking after the match that like, I mean, everybody like I met said they
06:04had tears in their eyes and I was like joking.
06:06The whole world saw me cry, but I didn't watch a single person cry because I was inside the
06:11playing hall.
06:12Yeah.
06:13I understand.
06:14Yeah.
06:15No, no, you are absolutely brilliant.
06:17But, you know, he just mentioned the word joking and I don't associate joking with chess
06:22players.
06:23I consider them very serious.
06:24I'll show you an example of that.
06:26We have something here.
06:28There are a group of girls called Botes sisters and they make a lot of chess content.
06:34They got a picture with Gukesh after he was world champion and the tweet read, why does
06:38it look like Gukesh is held hostage?
06:40Because that's how serious Gukesh is.
06:42This went viral.
06:44Were you scared?
06:45I see you more scared here than when you were playing that World Chess Championship.
06:49Squeeze between two pretty girls.
06:51No, I mean, I like in general, people keep saying, why don't you smile for pictures?
07:01It's just very unnatural for me.
07:03So, but I'm not like a serious person or anything.
07:07I'm in general casual, but just smiling for pictures is still something that I have to
07:12work on.
07:13Okay.
07:14We've got to smile from him, you know.
07:16But, but that he has a fun side.
07:18I also discovered that he has a fun side to him and adventurous side at that.
07:23He won the World Championship in Singapore and you would think that after that he would
07:28need some quiet time to relax because mentally it's very exhausting.
07:33But I'd like to show you how he unbound after winning that title.
07:38He went to a park very close by in Singapore and this is what he did.
07:43Gukesh, Chess Champion there, going for his first bungee jump.
07:47How are you feeling, sir?
07:48Scared.
07:49Are you ready for this, Gukesh?
07:51I think so, yeah.
08:02I am the World Champion.
08:11Brilliant.
08:12Brilliant.
08:13This is how he celebrated his World Championship win.
08:16When was your heart pumping harder?
08:19Was it those last moments with Ding when he made that blunder and you won or was it here
08:24standing on top?
08:25It was actually quite similar.
08:28So basically we made this deal like in between the match, me and my trainer, we made this
08:37deal and then we just went through with it.
08:39Till I got to the edge, I didn't feel scared at all.
08:42But then once I got there, I was like, why am I doing this?
08:45But it was fun.
08:47It was also like a nice, like, I don't know, it was just nice bonding time.
08:55I mean, it was with me, both me and my trainer did it and a lot of friends joined us.
09:01So it was a lot of fun, actually.
09:04Let's talk about the revolution that has come about in India.
09:08You know, sometime back you had the US of A dominating, you had Russia dominating chess.
09:15Now I'm proud to say that India has the most players in the top hundred.
09:20Thirteen Indian players are in the top hundred, the most in top ten.
09:24There are three, Gokesh is of course world number three, but three Indians in the top ten.
09:28What is brought about this chess revolution here in India, you reckon?
09:32I think a lot of factors play a role here.
09:41I think one of the biggest contributions without a doubt is what Vishy sir has been doing.
09:51Not only his achievements, not only being an inspiration, but around 2020 December,
09:58he partnered with Westbridge to launch Westbridge Jnanan Chess Academy.
10:03I'm a student in the academy and Vishy sir's vision was to select the top talented youngsters at that time,
10:16in the lockdown, because there were no tournaments happening.
10:18It was all online and a lot of people were not working as hard.
10:23So it was a great moment for us to actually take the advantage.
10:27In India, it was super exciting for me and I'm sure for a lot of youngsters,
10:33because to get in touch with Vishy sir, to discuss chess with him regularly was so motivating.
10:39The lockdown, the pandemic didn't feel like a waste of time.
10:43We were actually working super hard.
10:46So that was very nice, what Vishy sir and Westbridge did.
10:52So that is a huge part.
10:55And also, I guess, in the lockdown, we had this streaming, chess streaming.
11:02A lot of celebrities from other fields came and a lot of people took interest in chess.
11:10And also chess has this benefit that you don't have to step out of the house to play.
11:14So it was a perfect hobby at that time.
11:17And after the lockdown, we see clearly a huge boom happening.
11:22And I think also recently, at least in the last couple of years,
11:28the support from government and the corporate sponsorships are great.
11:34Players are constantly getting rewarded for the wins.
11:39After the Olympiad, Candidates, World Championship, I was rewarded.
11:44And we could see how much it means to government and the people of India about
11:51not only mine, but whenever Prague or Arjun or any of the Indian player wins something,
11:57it's getting really big and I'm really, really honored to be a part of this revolution.
12:03Okay, talk about turning adversity into your advantage.
12:06That's what the young bunch of Indian chess players have done.
12:09As he mentioned, during COVID, you saw these bunch of youngsters coming up.
12:13They're all known as Vishy's children because Vishwanathan Anand has mentored all of them.
12:17And now you have a world champion in Gukesh.
12:19One thing, Gukesh, I know we're running out of time, but I really wanted to know,
12:23as a novice, how many moves are you thinking in advance?
12:28You know, when we play at best, it's one or two moves I'm thinking what I'm going to do.
12:33You, for example, how many moves?
12:37It majorly depends on the specific situation.
12:41Depends on the position, it depends on the opponent.
12:45So basically in certain positions where there are like several options,
12:50if I make one move, like opponent has like four or five options,
12:53and then again it stays the same for the next five moves.
12:56You don't calculate that much. It's maximum like five or six moves ahead
13:01because there are a lot of branches.
13:03But if there is one clear path, like I make one move, opponent has one reply and so on,
13:08easily ten or fifteen or even more than that.
13:12So it majorly depends on the position.
13:16Fifteen moves, wow. No wonder you can beat a computer.
13:19Mental fatigue, tell us about that because us as amateur players,
13:23if I play a hard game of chess, it takes me a full day to recover.
13:26You play, you know, sometimes three hours, four hours, even longer than that
13:30and back-to-back fourteen matches championship you have.
13:33How do you recover mentally?
13:37Yeah, for sure like long games are very tiring because,
13:45I mean you, in general like you don't stay focused for the whole duration of five or six hours,
13:51but in the critical moments you have to stay focused and
13:55those critical moments are also where there are like,
13:59where the pressure is super high and it takes a toll on you.
14:02But for me, I personally, like lot of players have their own ways to deal with it.
14:07For me, it's about following a routine and during a tournament,
14:10sleeping well, eating well and just and also I,
14:16that's why I think chess players are,
14:19it's important for chess players also to be physically fit
14:23because it's obviously connected with mental well-being as well.
14:26And he does travel with a mental conditioning coach as well as most players do
14:31and that probably also helps them.
14:33Before I let you go, I have to ask you about a very critical juncture
14:38that the world of chess finds itself in.
14:40You know, it is split between freestyle chess and classical chess.
14:44Where do you see chess going in the future?
14:46Because now you have two different sets of people supporting different type of formats.
14:52Could you have a split in the world of chess or you're not really worried about that?
14:57I don't think much about it.
14:59I mean, freestyle I'm happy to play and I'm happy that it's a new format.
15:05It's an exciting thing.
15:07I mean, it changes how chess has been seen.
15:11But it's too early to say.
15:13I mean, we've had like two serious tournaments in freestyle.
15:16So, it's too early to say.
15:19I mean, I wish freestyle becomes big, but I don't see it like taking over standard chess
15:27because just the history that standard chess has, I think, has more value.
15:33And I think still the world championship cycle holds the biggest importance for now.
15:41But yeah, it's a great addition to classical rapid blitz.
15:45Freestyle is a great addition.
15:47But yeah, we just have to see how it goes.
15:49And you're open to all?
15:50I'm open to all.
15:51Okay.
15:52Time is up, but I can't let you go without doing one thing.
15:55For those of you who don't know, you know, this is a quiet, reserved young boy.
16:00But there's one thing that's gone viral about Gukesh is his alpha male walk.
16:04I don't know if you've seen it.
16:06He always checks out the other opponents with his hands in his pocket and his tight
16:10and he checks what they are doing.
16:12I want you to just do your alpha walk once.
16:15Come on.
16:16Let people see.
16:17Have you got some music?
16:41This is how he keeps a tab on the other opponents,
16:43walking like this on their table to intimidate them.
16:45But thank you so much, Gukesh, for taking our time and speaking to us here in India today.
16:50Wishing you all the very best.